ZogBlog

I've been using WMP11 for a while now... kicking the tires so to speak. The new UI is indeed better over the old WMP10... but it's really just a new skin. For me their are a few key areas that you have to fucus on:

• Podcasting Support
• Playlist Scripting

First thing of course as I mentioned in Beta Mania! is Microsoft has completely forgot about podcasting - it's as if it doesn't even exist. This is the one real area they could have OWNED - but Microsoft is apparently asleep at the wheel here. After doing a little research, I decided to use Newsgator, FeedDemon and FeedStation to subscribe, download and shuffle the podcasts over to WMP11. Nowhere near as simple as iTunes. Microsoft! How the hell could you not include podcasting support?!

Anyway, in iTunes I have a PodShow "Smart PlayList" that points to at least 5 other playlists of individual podcasts (Daily Source Code, Pacific Coast Hellway, Digital Flotsam, Creepy Sleepy Show, Accident Hash), and then the overall PlayList is filtered by PlayCount=0 (this way the playlist is dynamic... with new shows coming in, and old shows dropping off the list. I tried replicating this capability in WMP11 with a similar (if real baby-step like) feature called an "Auto PlayList." It wasn't immediately obvious how to create one... but after about 15 minutes I stumbled across it when I right-clicked the PlayList folder. The resulting dialog is really, really weak - you can't point at other playlists... and pick lists don't appear to show podcast artists when you limit by Artist (it's just inexplicably missing!). Microsoft?! How the hell could you have so weak an Auto Playlist Builder?! I'm just stunned that WMP11 falls flat on its face with such a BASIC feature.

So to recap, WMP11 will not manage & download my podcasts, nor can I script my own Auto PlayList to sync up to an MP3 player for podcasting on the go (which is the whole point).

And yes, I listen to music too... but far, far less than listening to audiobooks (both commercial and public, podiobooks & podcasts. Playback works (at the least)... but of course, MP3s have no bookmarking capability by default, and WMP11 naturally doesn't care about such things. End result - don't switch to another file before finishing the one you're on. Otherwise you'll have to remember where you left off, and advance the MP3. That's just CRAP.

First Impression: WMP11 is a warmed over WMP10 (let's face it, there has been no substantive change since WMP5). And it adds nothing I'm looking for at all. Microsoft has not only failed to deliver a compelling product, it's downright abysmal. It's no wonder the iPod is so popular - iTunes majorly kicks WMP's ass feature-wise (even though iTunes for Windows continues to have incredibly POOR performance). Oh well, at least it hasn't bombed on me completely like both IE7b2 and FireFox 1.5.04 seems to do every once in a while.

VPC 2004 w/SP1 installed. Check.
W2K3 installed with SP1. Check.
SQL2005 installed. Check.
WinFX beta 2 runtime installed. Check.
SharePoint 2007 installed. Check.

So, with everything installed I opened up Central Administration - which turns out to be an actual WSS site. In 2003 it was just an ASP page, so it's nice to see some dogfooding/reuse here. Also in 2003, I probably spent weeks just trying to get it to install (until I figured out the installation order & requirements - damnit).

First thing you see is an Administrative Tasks webpart with three tasks

• Initial Deployment: Add Servers to Farm
• Initial Deployment: Assign Services to Servers
• Configure Farm's Shared Services

I couldn't figure out to add a server... but since I intended everything to be on the same box, I tried assigning services (like search since it wasn't configured by default in 2001). But clicking around got me nowhere. I decided to just dive in and create a site, than a WSS site. I setup a db account and a portal account, and then went to Application Management | Create or extend Web Application. I enter all the appropriate details (using default site, db/portal accounts, etc.) and click submit. A snazzy spinning graphic indicates that it's working... It finally comes back (1-2 minutes) and says that the application has been created. So far so good!

When I tried loading the portal page - it failed. Here's where everything screeches to a halt. I got the default IIS page... and no portal. Huh? So I checked IIS, and it turns out that it didn't create the pool, or add anything to the website. Confused, I realized that the site was stopped (I assume that it is stopped by default after installation of windows) and started it.

I deleted the web app (Delete Web Application) and started over. A few minutes later I checked it... and sure enough sharepoint hasn't done anything. So I tried again. This time I got an interesting error during creation that talked about some pipe issue (not the database kind). With shades of crappy Microsoft SMS on my mind (where magic happens behind a curtain... sometimes 15-20 minutes AFTER you have specifically asked it to do something right NOW), I decided to create a web app on a new virtual root. Same thing, it completes without a problem - but doesn't actually do anything. I double check the services... and sure enough everything is up and running (but search - no surprise - is off by default). A quick look at SQL 2005 shows that the content databases are indeed being created. IIS is even servicing ASP.NET 2.0 sites.

Pulling my hair out at this point I decide to try creating a WSS Site (Maybe portal no longer has a UI?). After 10 minutes of utter confusion, I try “Create site collection“. Turns out it's a good guess. The link pagename is createsite.aspx... and it creates a site (regardless of being called “Create site collection“). This finishes... and when I try to load the page what do I get? Nuthin!

Ahhhhhhhhh.

I'm done. Stick a fork in me.

First Impressions? It needs work. A lot of work. B2 doesn't even seem functional (unlike b2 of IE7 that runs - most of the time). Anyone else get the beta to work? If so let me know... and we can compare notes.